Aloha!
We have been working hard to put together an Exotica event here in Chicago this summer and we wanted to let you know that we have secured a venue and locked in on a date. We'll be celebrating Tiki this year the weekend of July 9th. Dubbed "Exotica 2005—Luau by the Lake," we hope to have a full program with lots of excitement and entertainment for everyone. The main event will take place that Saturday, with additional functions slated for Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

We are currently lining up our entertainment and hope to soon have the confirmations necessary to make proper announcements about who you'll see at Exotica this year. If you would like to participate, either as a performer or as a vendor, please contact us at exoticachicago@ameritech.net We would love to have as many carvers, Tiki artists, and Tiki vendors (especially vintage!) as possible, but space is limited—so if you'd like to join us, please let us know as soon as possible.

Future updates and announcements will appear in this thread, so keep an eye out and we hope you can start making plans to join us this summer.

This is good news. Luckily I happen to have already secured that week as a vacation from work. Now that is a sweet thing. I sure hope we can make it cause we love Chicago and it would be excellent to finally meet other TC'ers in person!
OK, I gotta go tell Mrs. 8FT
_________________I once was lost.....but now I'm found.....

Is there anywhere cheap to stay, or anyone cheap to stay with? lol It's not only $29 each way from pittsburgh to Chicage, which I can more than afford, but with all the exotica events, fundage for hotels would be a bit low. And I don't know how I'd get around, but that's another issue. It looks like I may get to go to my first trader vics!!!

I'm sure the organizers will have some places mapped out that are affordable. I would look into staying near hala kahiki. there's a cheap motel about 3 or four blocks from it. you could stagger home from the bar. there are some others nearby, but would require a short cab ride. as far as getting around, there is a train stop right there by the hotels that takes you into the city....

my place is four train stops from the trader vics...I'm thinking of having alittle bar-b-que that weekend ....we can party in the bamboo bunker than catch train down to trader vics. My buddy andrew has a condo with a huge rooftop deck overlooking the skyline....we tikied it out and dubbed it the " skyland" because it is the tallest building in that area (8 stories) and the place looks like a tropical island in the sky. he'll probably have something going on as well too. we had the cocktail preachers surf band play up there last summer for the kick-off party to celebrate his closing on the condo....i'll post the link later tonight with pics of the event....